


Third Time's the Charm

by DelilahBlueEyes



Series: Third Time's the Charm [1]
Category: Beetle Juice (1988), Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-10
Updated: 2013-09-10
Packaged: 2017-12-26 05:30:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/962153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DelilahBlueEyes/pseuds/DelilahBlueEyes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Belle French moves to a quiet town in Connecticut with her ailing father and needy stepmother, she gets far more than anyone bargained for. Ghosts in the attic, a flaming bulldog in the basement and something much more invasive has taken up residence in the little plastic model of the town…. Storybrooke is in for a wild ride.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Third Time's the Charm

Belle French sighed and threw open the back door of her father’s Cadillac and stepped out onto the grass, craning her neck to look up at the house. It was enormous. Tall and somehow crooked and looming over them. She heard the other car doors open and started up toward the porch of the house, hoping to avoid hearing the inevitable—

“Oh, dear lord!”

Belle scurried into the house, resigned to an entire evening of pissing and whining on the part of her soon to be stepmother. Regina wobbled up the driveway in her platform pleather heels, ignoring the courteous hand her father offered. When she tottered to a stop beside Belle in the entryway, Belle thought she might cry.

“It’s so…..it’s so….”

Perfect, Belle thought.

“Hideous!” Regina wailed. She went through every room in the house, shouting at her personal assistant, Syd, about the changes that would have to be made. Belle followed quietly behind them and secretly thought the house was perfect. All dark wood and pretty patterned wallpaper and light pastel colors. Her father seemed to be of a mind with her, though he was smart enough to remain silent. Syd kept a list of every alteration to be made as the movers began to bring in their things. Regina stormed her way up the stairs with Syd and Belle in tow, though Maurice stopped at the foot of the stairs and watched them go. His failing health was the reason they’d moved out of New York City and into the calmer, sweet air of Connecticut.

The bedrooms were all wrong, apparently. The light was eastern, and Regina looked best in the sunset. The ceilings would have to be raised- no, she didn’t care that it wasn’t really possible, just get it done, moron! Belle stopped them at the last room on the floor and told them that there were no changes necessary. Tucked away in the back corner of the house, removed from the hustle and bustle of the movers, was her room. It must be her room. It was a lovely lilac color, with a built-in, padded window seat that she could picture sitting on with a book on any given night. She asked the movers to bring up her boxes and hurried to find Regina and Syd. They’d found the door to the attic and were clustered at the top of the stairs. As she watched, Syd attempted to break the lock with a screwdriver and nearly toppled backwards into Belle when the screwdriver was shoved back out of the keyhole. Regina quickly grew bored and clattered her way back down to further abuse their new home.

Belle lingered outside the door a moment of two, sure for a moment that she’d seen a pair of shadows cross the light coming under the door….

Dinner that night was uneventful. Regina whined, Maurice soothed to no effect and Belle stared across the dining room and pushed her rapidly cooling Chinese take-out in circles on her plate.

She lay up reading long after Regina had slammed her bedroom door and her father’s booming snore rolled down the hall to her (the very reason Her Highness claimed that she couldn’t sleep in the same room with the man, though Belle suspected otherwise). Having sent the movers away with a hefty tip and Syd to his hotel room, Belle was surprised to hear small scuffling sounds above her. She set her book down and listened for a few moments, thinking perhaps a few eager little mice had found something yummy to share, but whatever it was, it was bigger than a mouse. Deciding that her father was too sound asleep to help and that Regina would only laugh, Belle picked up her old, worn cricket bat and headed up the stairs. Maurice had found a key hidden in the back of a drawer in the library and given it to her to find the lock for. She carried the key up the stairs, creeping as quietly as she could. She could hear voices as she slipped the key into the lock in the door and turned it as slowly as she could. Then she slammed the door open and threw herself through it with a small shout. A man and woman stood together in the shadowy room, jumping away from each other when she flew in.

“Who- who the hell are you and why are you squatting in my attic?!” She demanded, brandishing her weapon of choice as if she were ready to actually use it.

“David, I thought you locked the door!”

“It was locked! She must have found the key!”

“You were supposed to throw that out!”

“Mary, do you remember the giant sand worms?!”

“Shut up!” Belle shouted, bouncing from foot to foot nervously and praying that her father would wake up and have the sense to call the police. The junkies in New York looked much worse than these two but who knew how many country folk hid an oxycontin addiction behind printed floral dresses and suspenders?

The pair shared a glance before slowly approaching her, hands held loosely at their sides as if they were trying to approach a skittish horse. Belle backed away from them until her back hit the wall and still they advanced.

“Stay away or I’ll-,”

But still they approached so she closed her eyes, pulled the bat back as far as she could and swung it as hard as she could. She nearly stumbled sideways when the bat met absolutely no resistance and clunked harmlessly against the wall at her side. She looked from the bat to the mysterious intruders a few times before trying to shove the blunt end of the paddle into the man’s stomach- only to have the thing slip completely out of her hands and thunder across the floor after flying right through the man. Her fingers just barely passed through the fabric of his shirt, leaving her skin feeling cool and tingling.

“Oh, no,” Mary groaned, and stepped closer until Belle slipped away again. “Please, sweetie, calm down. We won’t hurt-“

Belle opened her mouth as wide as possible and screamed so loudly her soul shook.

Everything happened very quickly after that. Maurice and Regina stumbled out of their rooms and up the stairs, her father breathing far too quickly and Regina nursing a nearly twisted ankle from her high-heeled slippers. The couple had disappeared and Belle quickly realized how insane the real story would be. And she wouldn’t give Regina half of a reason to ship her off and leave her father alone. She told them she’d found a big, fat rat and escorted her father back down to his bedroom to help him take more of his medication and go back to sleep.

Back in her own bed, Belle lay in the dark stretching her fingers and wondering about the situation she’d stumbled into. So, there were ghosts in the attic. She was sure she had a book about that somewhere. She decided to check in the morning and fell asleep watching the little silver attic key glinting in the green light from her digital alarm clock.


End file.
